Ways and Means members discuss short-term rental registry, room-tax share and reporting challenges

Members of the Cayuga County Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee discussed efforts to include short-term rentals in the county’s room tax collection and to create a registry to improve reporting and revenue capture.

The committee discussed how existing arrangements allocate the 5% county share of the room tax. Fred (staff, legal) said, “The county keeps 5% of the room tax. The rest goes to tourism under the local law.” The conversation centered on whether an amendment and a registry for short-term rentals would change how much revenue the county and the county’s tourism organization receive.

The committee heard that the change would likely increase both room tax and sales tax receipts as more short-term rentals are captured. The treasurer (name not specified) said the county’s 5% share had risen but described the absolute dollar effect as modest: “it’s only about $3,000 in money real money.” Committee members and staff discussed that while total collections to the tourism organization had risen substantially—one speaker said total room-tax revenue exceeded $1 million in the most recent year and another said revenue increased by “over $200,000” in a year—the county’s administrative share at 5% remains small in absolute dollars.

Committee members and staff described a few practical issues under consideration: whether booking platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo uniformly remit tax information (one staff speaker said Airbnb “does a good job” but Vrbo “does not”), who will maintain the registry, how registrations by private homeowners will be tracked, and the extra administrative workload for county staff to maintain the registry. Staff said the county previously contracted with major platforms to collect room taxes on behalf of hosts, and the planned amendment would expand the local law’s scope to require collection by both platforms and individual hosts.

Members noted the need to coordinate any change with the county attorney, the tourism office (Karen was identified as tourism staff who would have data), and the tourism organization under existing contracts. Staff said they have begun meetings on a schedule and expect additional meetings before a final approach is presented; one meeting planned for February had been postponed and staff expected follow-up meetings in March.

No resolution or formal vote on amendments or a registry was taken at the meeting. Committee members asked staff to continue working through details, including how the registry will be maintained, how the local law would be amended, and how revenue flows under existing tourism contracts might be affected.